Santa Clara County Biographies
This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
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MRS. MARY A. WHITE
SANTA CLARA COUNTY PIONEER
SURNAMES: SPELLMAN, FORD,
A distinguished pioneer who has seen the marvelous development and growth of
Santa Clara Valley, and is today honored by all who know her for her own
enviable part in that development and expansion, is Mrs. Mary A. White, who
lives retired on Day Road, some two and a half miles northwest of Gilroy. She
was born in County Roscommon, Ireland, on May 21, 1840, the daughter of Thomas
and Winnifred (Spellman) Ford, well known in their land and generation. Thomas
Ford died in 1842, and in 1844 Mary Ford accompanied her mother across the
Atlantic to Boston, Mass. Meanwhile Edward and James Ford came to California,
and in 1855 Mrs. Ford and her family came out to California by way of the
Isthmus of Panama, taking passage on the old steamer Sierra Nevada, from New
York to Aspinwall. They crossed the Isthmus in a wagon and then traveled from
Panama to San Francisco aboard the side-wheeler Golden Gate. Arriving in
California, Mrs. Ford, Mary and two sons came on to San Jose, to which city two
older brothers, Edward and James, had migrated. Mrs. Ford died at Edenvale,
December 17, 1886, aged eighty years.
At San Jose, in 1858, Miss Ford married Thomas White, who was born in Canada on
November 24, 1836, and had come to California with his parents in 1853, via the
Isthmus, traveling in much the same manner as had the Fords. He was a fine young
man, and a very hard, honest worker; but his promising life was cut off all too
early, and he passed away in January, 1889, at his home near Gilroy. In 1879,
the Whites had removed to a small ranch near Gilroy, after Mr. White had engaged
in ranching for a while at Pine Ridge; and later Mr. White acquired 100 acres of
the James Murphy ranch on Day Road, which he farmed to grain and stock. After
the death of her husband, Mrs. White added eighty-eight acres to the ranch, at
the same time that she was rearing and educating her twelve children, and later
overseeing the rearing of two grandsons under her roof. Although past eighty
years, she is singularly alert and her mental faculties are keen and still ready
for the varied demands of a modern day.
The children referred to have been: Thomas, who died in infancy; Edward, who
passed away when he was nineteen; William, who resides with his wife and three
children at Gilroy; Annie remains at home with her mother; Thomas, married,
lives with his wife and three children at Oakland, although they have a ranch on
the Watsonville Road; James, deceased, is survived by his widow and two
children, and they reside at Colusa; John is also deceased, but his widow and a
son are living at Gilroy; a daughter is Sister Viviana, a nun at the convent at
Gilroy; Charles White, who married and has a wife and one child, is an
orchardist on Day Road, Gilroy; Frank is deceased; Louis, unmarried, lives at
home and is manager of the ranch; and Nellie also adds her charm to the home
circle. Mrs. White has done much in her time to support St. Mary's parish; and
as a Democrat she has also exerted her best influence for higher and better
political conditions.
Transcribed by Joseph Kral, from Eugene T. Sawyers' History of Santa Clara
County, California, published by Historic Record Co. , 1922. page 342